"Lee Jae-yong Parole" Ministry of Justice: "There Have Been Cases of Parole During Additional Investigations and Trials in the Past"

Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics / Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Regarding the parole release of 810 model prisoners, including Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is serving a prison sentence for the state power abuse scandal, on the upcoming August 15 Liberation Day, the Ministry of Justice stated, "There have been cases in the past where parole was granted while under investigation or trial for other cases."

On the 9th, Ministry of Justice spokesperson Park Hyun-joo responded to a pre-briefing question from reporters asking, "Are there cases in the past where parole was granted while under investigation or trial for other cases?" after Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye completed the briefing on the Parole Review Committee results, saying, "Last year, parole was granted to 67 individuals who were undergoing additional cases."

Currently, Vice Chairman Lee is separately on trial at the Seoul Central District Court for charges including the illegal merger of Samsung C&T and propofol administration, apart from being sentenced to 2 years and 6 months imprisonment in the retrial of the state power abuse scandal in January.

As of the end of last month, Vice Chairman Lee has served 60% of his sentence. He was also classified as a model prisoner and passed the preliminary parole review at Seoul Detention Center. The Ministry of Justice relaxed the parole eligibility requirement from serving 80% of the sentence to 60% in April.

When asked if there have been cases where parole was granted to prisoners who had served less than 70% of their sentence, spokesperson Park replied, "Recently, there were 244 prisoners who had served less than 70% of their sentence," adding, "This trend is gradually expanding. We will continue to expand parole to allow prisoners with low risk of recidivism to return to society by lowering the required sentence completion rate."